George

Why did I choose my degree/career?

At school I knew I was more interested in the sciences and maths. Chemistry was my weakest point, so I knew if I were going to university, it would be between electrical, mechanical or computer engineering. Much of what I had at home and at school was with microcontrollers, and this had piqued my interest. Mechanical was more of a hobby, and computer engineering is something that can be self-taught. So, I went to Sheffield for Electrical and Electronic Engineering. The more I studied at university, particularly into the 4th year, my interest in embedded systems and system design grew.

What’s it like to work for Nordson Dage?

Whilst I can’t say how my experience compares to other companies, I can say that I very much enjoyed my time at Nordson during my 2 UKESF summer placements. I was given autonomy to work to the goals as I saw fit, with regular check ins, to ensure that I was heading in the right direction. I loved working with my team in Colchester, who were very charismatic and entertaining, and we even had a few pub lunches on a Friday!

What do I do?

It’s only been a few days since I started my permanent role with Nordson, so the next few sentences will briefly describe what I’ve worked on during my internships.

The first summer I was in charge of characterising the dynamic performance gained from an improved stiffness carbon frame. I tracked the movements for settling time, repeatability and sphericity using 3d tracking cameras and wrote the data processing models in MATLAB. In the second year I helped a first year UKESF student build a prototype pick and place machine, wire up the motion control cabinet, as well as commission motor drives on other test systems that I had experience with from the first year.

Advice for current students?

I have only 2 pieces of advice:

1. Take every engineering opportunity you can.
2. Even the most boring modules still deserve attention. They are the ones that just trying a bit more will yield the best gains.